


The Root of Evil

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [6]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: M/M, Mild Horror, huxloween 2018
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-06
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-17 14:29:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16097549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Huxloween 2018 day 6: apple pickingBen wants to make cider. For that you need apples, right? Good job Old Man Snoke has an enticingly unguarded orchard.Hux just wants to go home.





	The Root of Evil

The morning mist hung thick and heavy, colouring the air grey while pale sunlight struggled to push through and warm the ground. Ben’s boots crackled the early frost and left prints that Armitage trudged after, rubbing chilled-to-the-bone hands together and blowing damp warmth through the woollen fibres to soothe aching fingers.  
“Ben, this is ridiculous,” Armitage said when he caught up. “We could have gone to Aldi.”  
“Trust me,” replied Ben. “Apples stolen from Old Man Snoke’s orchard will make way better cider than a carton of juice from the store.”  
Hux grabbed Ben’s arm. Ben stopped and turned. “Seriously, if we get caught—“  
“Nothing will happen, Armitage. Snoke’s all tucked up in bed, the wall’s only six feet high and we’ll be in and out before anyone knows about it.”  
“I’d like to be tucked up in bed,” said Armitage. “I was warm.”

Ben searched the grey stone wall until he found a foothold. He pushed himself up, grabbed the copestone and hauled his hips up onto the top. He slung his leg over and sat astride the wall, reaching a hand down to Armitage.  
“Give me the bag.” Armitage held up the large canvas shopping bag he usually kept in the car. Ben took it and dropped it over the wall then held his hand out again. “Okay, I’ll help you up.”  
Armitage took Ben’s hand and set his foot into the recess formed by the missing corner of a frost-chipped stone. Ben pulled and Armitage pushed and soon they grinned at one another from a perch six feet high.  
“Come on then,” said Armitage, dropping to the ground inside the boundary wall. “Let’s get this done.”  
Ben dropped after Armitage. They jogged to the nearest trees and searched the branches, still clinging to browning, spotted leaves. “Huh,” said Ben. “This one’s bare.”  
“You think he’s picked them all?” asked Hux. “We should just go.”  
“What, and give up already?” Ben aimed a look of disappointment at Hux. “Snoke’s orchard is huge. We just need to get deeper in.”

Ben led the way. Water clung to the grass in the avenues between the trees and soaked through their shoes, chilling their feet. The second and third rows of trees also had no fruit left to pick, and Hux suggested again that they call it off, glancing back at the boundary wall as if it might vanish. Ben laughed, took Armitage by the hand and pulled him further into the orchard. As they jogged between planted rows towards the heart of the orchard, the rows became less distinct and the trees became taller and wider, blocking out what little sunlight tried to penetrate. Hux glanced back to find that the boundary wall was no longer visible through the trees. He halted abruptly, pulling Ben to a stumbling stop just ahead of him.  
“Ben, I want to go back. This is insane.”  
The trees grew in haphazard clumps now, twisting together like wrestlers trying to push each other to the ground. Ben shook his head and pressed on, half-leading and half-dragging Hux, clambering over rotting, fallen trunks encrusted with fungi, scattering scuttling woodlice wherever bark crumbled under heavy feet.

Hux shuddered at the sight of a half-fallen, broken trunk that looked as if it had arms and legs and a head with a shock of spiky twigs with bright copper leaves for hair. He dug his feet into the ground and pulled back on Ben’s hand, gripping tightly with both of his. Ben stopped and turned.  
“I mean it, Ben. I’m going back. This place is giving me the creeps.”  
“But we’re almost there,” said Ben, pointing into the pitch dark heart of the orchard.  
“Almost where, Ben?” demanded Hux. “We came to steal a few apples for cider. That’s all. Not to get lost in the middle of Old Man Snoke’s orchard! Come on. Enough.” Hux smiled. “Come here.”  
Ben stood his ground so Hux had to step forward to meet him. Hux slipped his arms around Ben’s neck and kissed him. After a few seconds, Ben relaxed and returned the kiss.  
“I just... I was so sure...” Ben looked around, frowning. “I got the strongest feeling that there was the perfect apple tree right in the centre. I was going to take you there and we’d pick the best cider apples and...” Ben shivered. “Yeah, let’s go.”

In his lair inside a hollowed tree trunk at the very centre of his orchard, Old Man Snoke untwisted his gnarly limbs and stretched. His browned leaves furled to form hands with crabbed fingers and two knots either side of an axe cleft in his bark opened to become eyes. Roots slid free of the soil and wove themselves into misshapen feet, and, with a curse, he stepped out into the early morning. His voice whispered in the breeze, carried by tossing leaves that fluttered the message from tree to tree. Snoke reached out and thought with covetous regret of warm flesh that might have nourished him with its life force, root and branch, for years.

_Next time. Next time. Come closer. Next time._

Back at the boundary wall, panting as they dropped over and ran a few feet further, Hux and Ben laughed up into the bright sunshine that had burned away the mist, and searched for the birds that sang cheerfully from the hedgerows.  
“You know,” Ben said, taking Hux’s hand, “I think Aldi apple juice will do after all.”


End file.
